Have basic complications been deprecated in watchOS 9?

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Created Jun ’22

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I have a simple complication-only app called Roughly, which shows the approximate time in words, to the nearest five minutes, in a choice of languages. It's been on the store for several years, and it's getting creaky.

This new guide to WidgetKit is making me nervous: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/widgetkit/converting-a-clockkit-app

There's a line buried in there:

watchOS 9 and later no longer shows families like CLKComplicationFamily.circularSmall, CLKComplicationFamily.modularSmall, or CLKComplicationFamily.modularLarge on watch faces.

So... is that the end of all basic complications that haven't been made into Widgets? If so, it would be good to have more clarity on this — I do feel it's easy to miss when things are deprecated.

Thanks for any info!

Answered by Frameworks Engineer in 716879022

watchOS 9 no longer showing the older complication families is separate from the transition to WidgetKit-backed complications, and will not impact Roughly, since you are supporting all families. Your app’s complications will still be offered to watchOS 9 users.

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Answer 1

funwithstuff OP

Jun ’22

Also, a followup question. WidgetKit's documentation states there's a limit of 40-75 refreshes per day. (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/widgetkit/keeping-a-widget-up-to-date says "typically includes from 40 to 70", https://developer.apple.com/documentation/widgetkit/converting-a-clockkit-app says "up to 75 updates per day")

My app needs to change its Complication display every 5 minutes (288 different entries over a day) but all updates are entirely predictable, and the same timeline repeats every day. I remember ClockKit allowing something along the lines of 100 individual timeline entries, so refreshing every 4-6 hours was enough to keep things fresh even if a refresh was skipped. It's all text, low impact, no network access, so battery impact is hopefully minimal.

So... is the stated limit of "refreshes" a limit to the number of individual updates (meaning I can't use Widgets at all), or timeline changes (they should work)?

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Answer 2

Frameworks Engineer OP

Apple

Jun ’22

Accepted Answer

watchOS 9 no longer showing the older complication families is separate from the transition to WidgetKit-backed complications, and will not impact Roughly, since you are supporting all families. Your app’s complications will still be offered to watchOS 9 users.

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